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Clive Owen in Shoot 'Em Up James Dittiger/Courtesy of New Line Cinema

Remember those BMW film shorts that Clive Owen starred in a few years back, generating buzz that he might be the next 007? Well that job went to Daniel Craig, but Owen is back behind the wheel in Shoot 'Em Up playing Mr. Smith, who could be confused for James Bond if 007 didn’t shave, shower, or have any gadgets. As Smith, Owen blasts his way through a squalid urban dystopia, in a quest to protect a newborn child from a relentless gang of criminal thugs led by Paul Giamatti.

With the help of a buxom (and lactating!) prostitute played by Italian bombshell Monica Bellucci, Smith is constantly on the run in this non-stop, high-octane, and increasingly unbelievable adventure. More bullets fly than in all of the James Bond films combined.

Director Michael Davis has described your role as a kind of broken hero. Why did you decide to go for broke in here rather than for the camp of James Bond, for example?
I thought it was a really original fresh script. When I first got told about the movie and I was sent the script, I wasn't sure it was going to be my kind of thing. I don't know why…and then on the opening page, from the shootout whilst delivering a baby, [I thought]: This is wild. And then [it] continued in that vein. And I thought it was just such a sort of crazy, wild, irreverent, and very funny script. That's why I wanted to do it. It's one thing to write all this crazy action, but it's a very difficult thing to shoot actually. You've got to be technically very skilled to put together these big action sequences. And Michael hadn't directed a film of this scale before. So I met with him just to talk to him about his approach and how he was going to shoot it. And he was unbelievably prepared — to the point where the guy was going to explode if he wasn't going to direct this movie. It was like bursting with it. He storyboarded everything…From day one we were doing 40 set-ups a day, motoring at an incredible [pace]. And he knew exactly what he wanted every single day.

So within his parameters was there the possibility to do any sort of ad-libbing? Monica Bellucci clearly introduced a few Italian expletives of her own.
There was a little bit of room for that. But to be honest with you, he's so twisted that it's only him can come up with this stuff, do you know what I mean? It became very apparent that no one [else] could come up with this stuff &#mdash; because it's a very singular sort of thing. The film has a personality that I think is pretty unique. And…you see that it's him and his personality.